Listen free for 30 days
-
A Complicated Kindness
- Narrated by: Miriam Toews
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
A Complicated Kindness
Buy Now for $22.14
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
You may also enjoy...
-
All My Puny Sorrows
- Written by: Miriam Toews
- Narrated by: Erin Moon
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
Elf and Yoli are sisters. While on the surface Elfrieda's life is enviable (she's a world-renowned pianist, glamorous, wealthy, and happily married,) and Yolandi's a mess (she's divorced and broke, with two teenagers growing up too quickly), they are fiercely close - raised in a Mennonite household and sharing the hardship of Elf's desire to end her life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What a wonderful writer!
- By Anonymous User on 2023-07-16
Written by: Miriam Toews
-
The Flying Troutmans
- Written by: Miriam Toews
- Narrated by: Amy Rutherford
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
Days after being dumped by her boyfriend Marc in Paris - "he was heading off to an ashram and said we could communicate telepathically" - Hattie hears her sister Min has been checked into a psychiatric hospital, and finds herself flying back to Winnipeg to take care of Thebes and Logan, her niece and nephew. Not knowing what else to do, they set out on a road trip in search of the children's long-lost father, Cherkis. On their wayward journey, the Troutmans stay at scary motels, meet helpful hippies, and try to ignore the threatening noises coming from under the hood of their van.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
fantastic!
- By Robin Chamberlain on 2020-08-29
Written by: Miriam Toews
-
The Last Crossing
- A Novel
- Written by: Guy Vanderhaeghe
- Narrated by: John Henry Cox, John Keating, Colin Lane, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 18
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 16
This epic tale sweeps across continents and time, hovers over a key era in American history, and deftly realizes the humanity of a whole cast of characters. Told through flashbacks and alternating points of view, The Last Crossing is about redemption, about seeking and finding, about human feelings and strengths, about personal honor, and about that moment in life when we must decide to cross over and surrender to love.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
first time reader
- By Joyce Chisholm on 2021-12-14
Written by: Guy Vanderhaeghe
-
The Lost Daughter
- Written by: Elena Ferrante
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 21
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 21
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 21
Leda, a middle-aged divorcee, is alone for the first time in years when her daughters leave home to live with their father. Her initial, unexpected sense of liberty turns to ferocious introspection following a seemingly trivial occurrence. Throughout the novel, Ferrante's language is as finely tuned and intense as ever, and she treats her theme with a fierce, candid tenacity.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent story!!
- By Sarah on 2023-01-10
Written by: Elena Ferrante
-
Bel Canto
- Written by: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 76
Ann Patchett’s award winning, New York Times best-selling Bel Canto balances themes of love and crisis as disparate characters learn that music is their only common language. As in Pratchett’s other novels, including Truth & Beauty and The Magician’s Assistant, the author’s lyrical prose and lucid imagination make Bel Canto a captivating story of strength and frailty, love and imprisonment, and an inspiring tale of transcendent romance.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
My favourite novel
- By Beeswax on 2020-11-11
Written by: Ann Patchett
-
In the Skin of a Lion
- Written by: Michael Ondaatje
- Narrated by: Tom McCamus
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 114
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 103
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 103
Patrick Lewis arrives in Toronto in the 1920s and earns his living searching for a vanished millionaire and tunneling beneath Lake Ontario. In the course of his adventures, Patrick's life intersects with those of characters who reappear in Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning The English Patient.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent story, deadpan delivery
- By Brian Ashe on 2021-07-14
Written by: Michael Ondaatje
-
All My Puny Sorrows
- Written by: Miriam Toews
- Narrated by: Erin Moon
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
Elf and Yoli are sisters. While on the surface Elfrieda's life is enviable (she's a world-renowned pianist, glamorous, wealthy, and happily married,) and Yolandi's a mess (she's divorced and broke, with two teenagers growing up too quickly), they are fiercely close - raised in a Mennonite household and sharing the hardship of Elf's desire to end her life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What a wonderful writer!
- By Anonymous User on 2023-07-16
Written by: Miriam Toews
-
The Flying Troutmans
- Written by: Miriam Toews
- Narrated by: Amy Rutherford
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
Days after being dumped by her boyfriend Marc in Paris - "he was heading off to an ashram and said we could communicate telepathically" - Hattie hears her sister Min has been checked into a psychiatric hospital, and finds herself flying back to Winnipeg to take care of Thebes and Logan, her niece and nephew. Not knowing what else to do, they set out on a road trip in search of the children's long-lost father, Cherkis. On their wayward journey, the Troutmans stay at scary motels, meet helpful hippies, and try to ignore the threatening noises coming from under the hood of their van.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
fantastic!
- By Robin Chamberlain on 2020-08-29
Written by: Miriam Toews
-
The Last Crossing
- A Novel
- Written by: Guy Vanderhaeghe
- Narrated by: John Henry Cox, John Keating, Colin Lane, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 18
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 16
This epic tale sweeps across continents and time, hovers over a key era in American history, and deftly realizes the humanity of a whole cast of characters. Told through flashbacks and alternating points of view, The Last Crossing is about redemption, about seeking and finding, about human feelings and strengths, about personal honor, and about that moment in life when we must decide to cross over and surrender to love.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
first time reader
- By Joyce Chisholm on 2021-12-14
Written by: Guy Vanderhaeghe
-
The Lost Daughter
- Written by: Elena Ferrante
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 21
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 21
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 21
Leda, a middle-aged divorcee, is alone for the first time in years when her daughters leave home to live with their father. Her initial, unexpected sense of liberty turns to ferocious introspection following a seemingly trivial occurrence. Throughout the novel, Ferrante's language is as finely tuned and intense as ever, and she treats her theme with a fierce, candid tenacity.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent story!!
- By Sarah on 2023-01-10
Written by: Elena Ferrante
-
Bel Canto
- Written by: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 76
Ann Patchett’s award winning, New York Times best-selling Bel Canto balances themes of love and crisis as disparate characters learn that music is their only common language. As in Pratchett’s other novels, including Truth & Beauty and The Magician’s Assistant, the author’s lyrical prose and lucid imagination make Bel Canto a captivating story of strength and frailty, love and imprisonment, and an inspiring tale of transcendent romance.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
My favourite novel
- By Beeswax on 2020-11-11
Written by: Ann Patchett
-
In the Skin of a Lion
- Written by: Michael Ondaatje
- Narrated by: Tom McCamus
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 114
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 103
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 103
Patrick Lewis arrives in Toronto in the 1920s and earns his living searching for a vanished millionaire and tunneling beneath Lake Ontario. In the course of his adventures, Patrick's life intersects with those of characters who reappear in Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning The English Patient.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent story, deadpan delivery
- By Brian Ashe on 2021-07-14
Written by: Michael Ondaatje
Publisher's Summary
Sixteen-year-old Nomi Nickel longs to hang out with Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull in New York City's East Village. Instead she's trapped in East Village, Manitoba, a small town whose population is Mennonite: "the most embarrassing sub-sect of people to belong to if you're a teenager." East Village is a town with no train and no bar whose job prospects consist of slaughtering chickens at the Happy Family Farms abattoir or churning butter for tourists at the pioneer village. Ministered with an iron fist by Nomi's uncle Hans, a.k.a. The Mouth of Darkness, East Village is a town that's tall on rules and short on fun: no dancing, drinking, rock 'n' roll, recreational sex, swimming, make-up, jewellery, playing pool, going to cities, or staying up past nine o'clock.
As the novel begins, Nomi struggles to cope with the back-to-back departures three years earlier of Tash, her beautiful and mouthy sister, and Trudie, her warm and spirited mother. She lives with her father, Ray, a sweet yet hapless schoolteacher whose love is unconditional but whose parenting skills amount to benign neglect. Father and daughter deal with their losses in very different ways. Ray, a committed elder of the church, seeks to create an artificial sense of order by reorganizing the city dump late at night. Nomi, on the other hand, favours chaos as she tries to blunt her pain through "drugs and imagination." Together they live in a limbo of unanswered questions.
Nomi's first-person narrative shifts effortlessly between the present and the past. Within the present, Nomi goes through the motions of finishing high school while flagrantly rebelling against Mennonite tradition. She hangs out on Suicide Hill, hooks up with a boy named Travis, goes on the Pill, wanders around town, skips class, and cranks Led Zeppelin. But the past is never far from her mind as she remembers happy times with her mother and sister - as well as the painful events that led them to flee town. Throughout, in a voice both defiant and vulnerable, she offers hilarious and heartbreaking reflections on life, death, family, faith and love.
Eventually Nomi's grief - and a growing sense of hypocrisy - cause her to spiral ever downward to a climax that seems at once startling and inevitable. But even when one more loss is heaped on her piles of losses, Nomi maintains hope and finds the imagination and willingness to envision what lies beyond.
Few novels in recent years have generated as much excitement as A Complicated Kindness. Winner of the Governor General's Award and a Giller Prize Finalist, Miriam Toews's third novel has earned both critical acclaim and a long and steady position on our national best seller lists.
What the critics say
Featured Article: Outstanding Female Authors Everyone Ought to Listen to
Throughout history, women have crafted some of the most incredible and beloved stories in the world. From rising stars to household names, female authors have contributed some of the best works of all time for our listening pleasure. At times, especially in societies where gender roles and expectations were rigidly defined, women would write under pen names to avoid the fact that a woman was behind the work. Discover the best female authors.
More from the same
Narrator:
What listeners say about A Complicated Kindness
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bonita Janzen
- 2018-09-18
A good read
Coming from a nearby Mennonite community, I enjoyed this book. Toews writes about what she knows and the feeling of entrapment becomes palpable as you listen to this story. I can imagine being in the story myself- not far from some of the real life experiences I’ve seen or heard about. #Audible1
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Helen
- 2018-11-27
Loved this book....both times!
I first heard it read on CBC radio, in the afternoons, a chapter at a time, and was intrigued. I come from the same mennonite heritage/culture/religion as she writes about and Miriam's books strike a chord with me. I love hearing the words we grew up with used in the way that only we could really understand, I think. The angst that her characters experience, I myself have lived also, in varying degrees. And look back on with gratefulness for how it crippled me in some ways, and for all it allowed me to learn from. Miriam Toews, I salute and bless you!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- Noreen Mills
- 2023-11-10
Sooo depressing.
only finished it because it was paid for. should having a warning...be prepared to be saddened with no light at the end.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sally C
- 2020-07-23
Eye opening!
I’ve always wondered what life was really like living in a Mennonite community. I come from a strict Baptist upbringing and there are a lot of similarities in the damnation culture. This book was a breath of fresh air...a confirmation that leaving the legalistic and traumatizing culture I grew up in was the best move I ever made. Thank you Miriam Toews for writing such a funny, heart wrenching, and honest story!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- ReadingInBC
- 2018-09-14
#Audible1
#Audible1 Spoiler Alert - Heartbreaking. Funny. I became totally invested in Nomi and yet knew that her story was one of sadness and loss. I wanted for everything to be okay but this is not a summer read that will leave you blissful and happy. It’s dark and sad and yet brilliant. Miriam Toews is a wordsmith that will leave you thinking. As a woman who has left organized religion this book left marks on my heart.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2018-09-14
Loved it
An interesting look into life in a Mennonite community. I found myself one minute feeling the despair of main character, and the next minute laughing my head off at the stories of her antics. The delivery of the narrative was perfect. #Audible1
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Peggy Yakimov
- 2021-07-19
Narrator style detracts from book
Somewhat bizarre story but is a reasonable guess about the mentality of a young person who has lived a life with cultish parents and lost a mother and been left alone with her father. While still very young. Not sure why this style of reading is so common but the machine-gun rhythm is extremely irritating snd may be the cause of my negative response to this book. It is making me less and less likely to continue with audiobooks
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Betina Buten
- 2020-12-13
A sweet, brutal, & funny but gut- wrenching story
I thoroughly enjoyed this story and loved that it was read by the author. I've wanted to read this book for a long time and loved how it captured the mind of a girl living in a small Mennonite town.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Kristy Westendorp
- 2019-04-18
A mellow listen
Love anything by Miriam Toeves and she is a great narrator. This one dragged a little in contrast to my fave of her's, All My Puny Sorrrows, but still a great relaxed listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Erin M. Naef
- 2020-07-06
Expected more
Doesn't live up to the hype; still good. Catcher in the Rye, but waaaay better.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful